Turkish premier talks oil in Azerbaijan

The Turkish Prime Minister, Mesut Yilmaz, has been discussing plans to export Azeri oil and Turkmen gas with the leaders of Azerbaijan.

Turkey wants deliveries to Western markets to be made by pipelines routed through its territory and is arguing against a rival project to export Azeri oil through Georgia and Russia.

The Azeri President, Geidar Aliyev, told Mr Yilmaz he favoured exporting the bulk of his country's Caspian oil through a projected pipeline from Baku to Ceyhan near the Mediterranean coast of south-east Turkey.

Mr Yilmaz was returning from talks in Turkmenistan on a multi-billion-dollar deal to buy natural gas.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service